
7S'7 

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Roosevelt Night 



Middlesex Club 

If 

Boston 
October 27, 1919 



ADDRESSES 



BY 



Governor CALVIN COOLIDGE 

Hon. JAMES R. GARFIELD 

CHARLES SUMNER BIRD, Esq. 

WILLIAM ROSCOE THAYER, Esq. 

Hon. DAVID JAYNE HILL 
GEORGE WHARTON PEPPER, Esq 



PRINTED BY THE CLUB 
1919 



£7>r7 



OFFICERS 

OF THE 

MIDDLESEX CLUB 



PRESIDENT 

LOUIS A. COOLIDGE 

VICE-PRESIDENTS 

Henry Cabot Lodge W. Murray Crane 

John W. Weeks John L. Bates 

secretary asst. secretary 

Edward C. Mansfield Benjamin F. Felt 

TREASURER 

Charles H. Ramsay 

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 

Charles S. Proctor, Chairman 
A. S. Apsey 

James E. Baker 

Herbert E. Fletcher 

Charles T. Cottrell 
Joseph W. Gerry 

Charles A. Grimmons 

Sidney M. Hedges 

Charles H. Innes 

Charles E. Fay 
Lincoln R. Welch 

John Jacob Rogers 
Paul S. Burns 

Seward W. Jones 

Edgar R. Champlin 

George H. Doty 

Frank W. Stearns 

Edward E. Jameson 
; Joseph B. Jamieson 

'<''' George E. Smith 

ADVISORY BOARD 

Samuel L. Powers William H. Dyer Charles G. Bancroft 






'7 






ADDRESSES 



BY 

CALVIN COOLIDGE. JAMES R. GARFIELD, CHARLES 

SUMNER BIRD. WILLIAM ROSCOE THAYER, DAVID 

JAYNE HILL AND GEORGE WHARTON PEPPER 

BEFORE THE MIDDLESEX CLUB. "ROOSEVELT NIGHT," 
AT HOTEL SOMERSET, BOSTON. MASSACHUSETTS 

MONDAY EVENING. OCTOBER 27. 1919 

Louis A. COOLIDGE, "Presiding 



MR. COOLIDGE 



Gentlemen of the Middlesex Club: 

This is a Republican club, but more than that, it is an Ameri- 
can club. (Hear! Hear! and applause.) And more than that, 
it is a club which stands for law and order. (Renewed applause.) 
This is Roosevelt night — Roosevelt who stood for America and 
who stood for law and order. As police commissioner of New 
York he enforced the law, as Governor of New York he sus- 
tained the men who enforced the law, and as President of the 
United States he stood always for the United States, for the 
America which he loved and which we all love. 

"Massachusetts was fortunate, and so was the country, in the 
men who held high and responsible office at the crisis through 
which this great city and the State have just passed. (Ap- 
plause.) At the head of the State was the Governor. On him 
fell the gravest and the highest responsibility. He met it in a 
way which has commended admiration throughout the United 
States. Governor Coolidge saw the whole bearing of the ques- 
tion ; he was wise, calm, firm, and entirely courageous. We speak 
of him as our candidate. He is much more than that. He is 

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the candidate of every true American, whether native-bom or 
naturalized, who believes in American institutions. He stands 
for all those who are firm in the faith that the Government of 
Massachusetts is not to be arbitrated. Governor Coolidge has 
rendered the greatest possible service not only to the State but 
to the nation." 

This is not my language, gentlemen. It is the language of 
Henry Cabot Lodge — (cheers) — spoken before the Republican 
state convention, and here are his concluding words : "When 
we go in our tens of thousands to the ballot box we may well be 
thankful that we have such a man at the head of our brave old 
State, and as we cast our votes with grateful hearts we can 
say, 'Here's to the pilot who weathered the storm.' " (Ap- 
plause.) 

Governor, I can add nothing to that. 

GOVERNOR CALVIN COOLIDGE 

Mr. President and Fellow Members of the Middlesex Club: 

The memory of a great man is with us on this day, a soldier, 
a statesman, a patriot, a President, but above all a great Ameri- 
can, Theodore Roosevelt. He loved his fellow man. He loved 
his country. He loved justice. Life with him was a practical 
affair. He had thoughts and theories and principles, but they 
were important to him only as they gave a rule of action. With 
him a duty was something that ought to be done. Theodore 
Roosevelt was the courage of America to act. His voice is 
hushed now, his form is still, but his deeds live in an awakened 
civic conscience that takes on immortality. Others will speak 
of him and what he did. Let us, like him, consider what we 
ought to do, and knowing, let us, too, as becomes Americans, 
act. 

Recent events here have turned the eyes of the nation again 
toward Bunker Hill. What others see clearly, there is danger in 
the confusion of a campaign we may fail to perceive. A police- 
man is a public officer. He is the outward symbol of the law. 
He represents the authority of the people. It is a high crime 
to interfere with him in any way in the discharge of his duties. 
On him depends the peace and order of the state. He is a judi- 
cial officer. Well might he remember the words of Grover 

(4) 



Cleveland that "a public office is a public trust." They are not 
employees. They are not holders of a job. No private concern 
is trying to make a profit out of their efforts. On the night of 
Tuesday, Sept. 9, about three-fourths of the Boston police aban- 
doned their posts. They did not leave because of any grievance. 
They say their pay, which had just been raised $200, was small, 
their hours long, their station houses bad. That was not the 
reason they left. Besides, no one can be heard to assert that 
his selfish interests required him to violate the law and his oath 
of office. They left because they were determined not to obey 
the law as expressed in the rule of their department. They deter- 
mined to substitute their will and their welfare for the will and 
welfare of all the people. Unless those in authority would per- 
mit this, they were to be forced to permit it by turning over 
Boston to terrorism. Force was to be substituted for law. 

There was at once demonstrated the need of the order of 
Stephen O'Meara and the order and the rule which had the force 
of law against an affiliated police union. It was for this purpose 
alone that the police left their posts. The committee of Mayor 
Peters confirms this when it says that "at no time did the execu- 
tive committee of the union or the members of the union vote to 
surrender their union affiliation or in any other way act upon 
the matter, except by vote to strike following the suspension of 
the 19 members who were placed upon trial. And in justice 
to the commissioner it should further be stated that at no time 
during the progress of the affair did counsel for the union or 
officers of the union or men upon trial take any position with 
the commissioner other than to insist upon continuing and re- 
taining their membership in the union. And in justice to the 
Governor it should be stated that at all times he assured the 
members of your committee that whenever called upon for a 
military force he would provide sufficient men, if they could be 
secured, to maintain law and order. And in further justice to all 
parties it should be stated that the Governor and the mayor and 
the commissioner, in the opinion of the committee, acted at all 
times from the highest of motives and with but a single thought, 
namely: the welfare of the Commonwealth and its people." Up 
to this point the question was one of police discipline. Over 
that the Governor has absolutely no control. With it I declined 
to interfere. 

(5) 



From then until now the question has been whether terrorism 
was to succeed. So long as law and order is maintained there 
is no terrorism. For that purpose on the evening of the strike 
I sent into Boston about 60 state police and about 100 metro- 
politan police. Some of the metropolitan police force refused 
to do duty. That was in part the cause of the disorder of that 
night. As soon as possible under the law, the mayor and I called 
out the State Guard. Before night, on the day the disorder 
started, the State Guard were on the street. There has been no 
disorder since they arrived that they have not been more than 
able to disperse. All possible help has been rendered by Mayor 
Peters. He did all he could in conference with me to avert the 
strike and all he could to help me maintain law and order. In 
this important work Lieutenant-Governor Cox and the Council 
have aided vigorously. The Lieutenant-Governor knows Boston 
thoroughly, is a legislator of experience, a lawyer of ability, deci- 
sion and force of character. His counsel has been most helpful 
throughout the year. Many volunteers have appeared. They 
have done all kinds of work from patrolling the street to serving 
on committees for the solicitation and distribution of funds. The 
existence of the Government itself is due to the loyal men of 
the three police forces, volunteers, State Guard, new militia and 
private citizens. For their sacrifice and determination no praise 
is too high. 

An adroit attempt has been made to enlist organized labor 
against law and order. That has failed and will continue to fail. 
They desire to improve their condition. For that they organize. 
All that their worst enemy could wish is that they would array 
themselves against the peace and good order of the whole people 
in order to secure some fancied benefit for themselves. H that 
were to start, organized labor would end. The high estimation 
in which it comes to be held was because of its patriotic stand 
during the war. It did not fail to support the Government. That 
gave it public approval. That carried its legislation through the 
last session of the General Court. Labor was loyal. It refused 
to listen to appeals to withdraw its support from the Govern- 
ment. It will refuse now. If the organization of government 
fails, the organization of labor fails. All values fail, all oppor- 
tunity for employment ends, all rights of property and of per- 
sons end. Force and terror reign alone. Organized labor is on 

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the side of law and order and for the support of the Govern- 
ment. Its members in Massachusetts are not submerged. They 
sit in the Boston City Council, the House and the Senate, on the 
most important boards and commissions in the Commonwealth 
and in the Governor's Council. With them right and private 
interest join. The government is their government. This fight 
is their fight. If it is lost, they cannot win. They will not be 
deceived. They are not bent on suicide. They never authorized 
the Boston police to leave their post of duty. The leaders of 
those who sought to overthrow the administration of the law 
by terrorizing Boston are on the road now, apparently well fi- 
nanced, still striving to gain their end. They and their asso- 
ciates are picketing the Government. They are hindering in every 
way possible the organization of a new police force. They are 
villifying the State Guard for doing its duty. Misled and mis- 
leading, so long as I am in authority it is my solemn duty to 
resist those who resist the Government. (Loud applause and 
prolonged cheering.) 

It is of the utmost importance that this question be thoroughly 
understood. It is not a question between employer and employee. 
It has absolutely nothing to do with wages or conditions of labor. 
These questions can be compromised ; they can be arbitrated. 
We cannot arbitrate the supremacy of the law. We cannot arbi- 
trate the duty of all persons to be obedient to the law. When 
that is done, government ceases to exist. The will of all the 
people ends and the arbitrary will of some class, some dictator, 
begins. That is revolution. That is disorder. That is anarchy. 
That is destruction. Disaster, distress and universal poverty 
would follow in their wake. We are facing an issue which 
knows no party. It is not new. That issue is the supremacy 
of the law. On this issue America has never made but one 
decision. Since that day when the little band sat in the cabin of 
the Mayflower and, declaring the right of the people to make 
laws, bound themselves one to another, that they would observe 
obedience to those laws, America has rejected the rule of force 
and clung to the rule of reason. Since that day there has been a 
government in Massachusetts founded on the will of all the 
people, and that government has been supreme. This issue is 
the cause of all the people. It must not fail now. I am for a 
government of all the people founded on right and truth and 



justice. I am against a government of force or terrorism, or 
group, or class, or selfish interest, but most of all I am against 
an attempt at a government founded on organized mendacity. 
(Cries of "Good!" Applause.) The terror of force has failed. 
The terror of falsehood is failing. But the people must remem- 
ber this is their government. If it is saved, they must save it. 
No party can do it. It requires the united efforts of all the people 
if their cause is to prevail. I have presented but most briefly 
the dangers. The remedy lies in action. The press of the Com- 
monwealth and the nation, without regard to party, is unanimous 
in the support of this issue. I appeal to all the people to rise 
and stamp out terrorism of every form that there may continue 
to be a reign of law and ordered liberty. 

Fellow members of the Middlesex Club, though not by birth 
or residence, yet by the major part of my American inheritance, 
I belong to Middlesex. I have a great pride in that county. 
Within her soil rest many of my ancestors. It was there our 
kinsmen fired the first shot for liberty. Send forth your Minute- 
men again that what they won we may not lose now. The cour- 
age of America to act — let that mantle of Theodore Roosevelt 
rest worthily and mightily upon us. (Enthusiastic and pro- 
longed cheers.) 

Mr. COOLIDGE. And let us pay our tribute to another mem- 
ber of this Club — Edwin U. Curtis (great applause) — who trod 
alone for many weeks an unblazed and bewildering path where 
danger lurked on every side. Let us thank God that when at 
last the crisis came he was so splendidly sustained. He would 
be here tonight were he not occupied unceasingly in building up 
and strengthening our breastwork of defence. We send to him 
our greeting and applause. 

"One who never turned his back, but marched breast forward, 

Never doubted clouds would break; 

Never dreamed, though right were worsted, wrong would 

triumph; 
Held we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better — sleep to wake." 

The Middlesex Club was the first organization in the United 
States to establish a Roosevelt night. The motion was made at 
the last dinner of the Club, on Grant Night, April 26, by Senator 
Lodge, and was adopted unanimously. I understand that similar 
action has been taken since by many other organizations all 

(8) 



through the United States, but we were the first. Senator Lodge 
had hoped to be here on this first occasion, but could not come. 
I have this letter from him: 

My dear Mr. Coolidge: 

It is a matter of the utmost regret to me that I can- 
not be present at the Roosevelt Dinner of the Middlesex 
Club on October 27. Unfortunately, we are in the last 
stages of the treaty and we shall probably be voting at 
that time and holding daily sessions. It would not be 
right for me to leave Washington at this time, in fact it 
would be impossible. I should like of all things to be 
present at the Middlesex Club on that occasion and 
speak of Mr. Roosevelt, his great services and his noble 
character, and all that they meant and still mean to the 
American people. Although dead, he still speaks to us 
through his life and work. He was a great man and a 
great patriot and this is the time of all others to follow 
the example he set in the last years of the war and the 
triumph that followed. 

Sincerely yours, 

(Signed) H. C. Lodge. 

It is needless for me to say what it is in my heart to say about 
Theodore Roosevelt tonight. There are others here, however, 
who were very close to him, and they are going to speak to you. 
Not in all history has there been another instance of a man pass- 
ing into history for all time so rapidly, so instantaneously as 
Theodore Roosevelt, almost before we realize that he is gone. 
The country is alive and awake with him tonight, just as truly 
as it was a year ago tonight. And from now, so long as this 
country shall last, it will still continue to be awake and alive 
with the spirit he gave us. 

There is here a member of his cabinet, one who was very 
close and dear to him. There are here two sons of other members 
of his cabinet, Caspar Bacon and George Meyer, both members 
of the Roosevelt Club, which has been organized to perpetuate 
the traditions which he upheld. It is singularly fortunate that 
James R. Garfield should be here, because he is a tie which 
binds us to a time, now seemingly far back. He is the son of 

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a beloved Republican president, a brave Republican soldier, one 
who knew Lincoln, one who fought with Grant, and he himself 
was close to Roosevelt. They are our patron saints. Mr. Gar- 
field, I am proud to present you to this audience tonight. 

JAMES R. GARFIELD 
Mr. Coolidge and Gentlemen, My Friends: 

This anniversary brings to all of us the deepest and tenderest 
remembrances. Throughout our land citizens of the Republic are 
gathered as we are tonight to think of Theodore Roosevelt, to 
repeat the lessons of his life, and to take new inspiration for the 
tasks that lie ahead of us. It is seldom, as your Chairman has 
said, that so soon after a life is ended it takes its place in his- 
tory. But with Theodore Roosevelt, appealing as he did to so 
many kinds of men and women, his death meant to them more 
than the death of any other man in American life. Curiously 
enough, the bitterness of opposition, the criticism of partisan- 
ship, have been stilled in these last few months, and those who 
were in opposition to him in life are today studying his life and 
realizing that he lived for service to America and her people ; 
are realizing that he preached, as no other man in our day and 
generation has preached, the doctrine of sturdy honesty, righteous 
living, high thought and of service beyond compare. 

In these days, after the close of the military war and at the 
beginning of the greater tasks which our country faces, we long 
for his leadership, we long for his voice, speaking those great 
truths over and over again, and driving into our hearts those 
principles of justice, of decency and of honesty. (Applause.) 
And while we all have in our own thoughts the tinge of sadness, 
y^et we know that Theodore Roosevelt never permitted personal 
loss to stand in the way of the performance of high public duty. 
Do you remember that, on the day after the death of his beloved 
youngest son, when his heart was wrung as only a father's heart 
can be wrung, he did not hesitate to go forward with the daily 
task and give his full service for the benefit of his own people? 
(Applause.) You remember his saying that the torch bearer 
would fall, but that it was the duty of those running after him 
to grasp the torch and carry it forward regardless of the loss of 
the man who dropped it. So he would say to us tonight : "Spend 

(10) 



not your time in mourning, but look forward to the doing of the 
things that must be done if America is to be saved for its great 
destiny." 

Throughout this broad land we are facing the perils of dis- 
order and of anarchy because we have been false as a people to 
the teachings of Theodore Roosevelt, and because we have al- 
lowed months to pass at times when we have failed to perform 
our duties as American citizens. We have been content with a 
military victory abroad, and we have not taken home to our fire- 
sides the lessons which that great conflict has taught — the lesson 
of preparedness, the lesson of service ; aye, service to the last 
drop of the heart's blood to the end that righteousness might 
prevail. Theodore Roosevelt's life from youth up was a life of 
service and a life of performance of obligation and duty. You 
never heard Theodore Roosevelt clamoring for his rights ; you 
always heard him calling upon men to fulfill their duty, knowing 
full well that no right which any honest man has can be enjoyed 
unless that man has performed the obligation that supported that 
right. That was, in brief, his simple doctrine of service. He 
served and did not wish to gain personal advantage. He for- 
tunately was able to serve from the beginning of his manhood. 
He fortunately was free from the necessity of daily labor to 
earn his livelihood, but that did not make him forget that the 
obligation which every citizen owed to his family was the founda- 
tion of American life. He had learned at home the obligation 
due to the family, and he preached that obligation everywhere. 
He went out into life equipped for the kind of service that made 
him the great leader of men. 

Throughout his long career Theodore Roosevelt never brooked 
nor tolerated injustice or dishonesty. He had but one measur- 
ing rod, and that measuring rod was applied to all classes of peo- 
ple. There were those who believed that when he attacked 
certain great corporations he was playing politics and was at- 
tacking those corporations merely for public favor. But now 
everybody knows that what Theodore Roosevelt preached — for 
honesty in business, for the regulation of great corporations, and 
for making great corporations subservient to the power of 
Government — has made a new business life in our country, and 
has made business men the stronger, the more honest and the 
more decent, because of what Theodore Roosevelt said and did. 

(11) 



But he never used his great power against one class of men for 
the benefit of another. That same measuring rod which he ap- 
plied to the great corporations and to the rich men he applied 
equally to the labor leader or to unorganized labor, or to the 
poor man. He required of them the same kind of honesty, the 
same kind of decency, the same kind of courage which he re- 
quired of the corporations or of the rich man. 

I am reminded of a remark he made at a dinner given to Mr. 
Morley of England. At that dinner there was one of the lead- 
ers of labor who made the remark, "It's a long jump from the 
top of a freight car to a seat at the President's table. Now," he 
said, "labor will be heard." "Yes," said the President, "the door 
of the White House will swing open to honest labor, but it will 
swing open no more easily to honest labor than to honest capital." 
There was no difference in his mind between the two. He de- 
manded of each that high fulfillment of duty and of obligation. 
He had no sympathy whatever with the kind of appeal that is 
made by labor today in some quarters, that it shall be given a 
preference. I remember that at one of the meetings late at 
night, when we were considering the question of certain modifi- 
cations of the anti-trust law, and a labor leader was urging that 
the labor organizations be exempt from the penalties that would 
be imposed on a corporation for a violation of that law, the 
President turned to him and said, "You are the worst enemy 
labor has when you demand special privilege for labor. The 
honest labor union man must be as obedient to law as the capi- 
taHst for whom he works." So he always balanced his state- 
ments in dealing with this problem of capital and labor, and 
because of that he gained the confidence and respect of all hon- 
est, decent men, wdiether they were of the capitalist or of the 
laboring class. 

Now it is that kind of principle that we need to bring 
home to our lives today in the settlement of many problems that 
are before us. It gives me the greatest pleasure to be here tonight 
and to hear what Governor Coolidge has said. Were Theodore 
Roosevelt alive today, he would be within your Commonwealth, 
Mr. Governor, raising his voice for your re-election and up- 
holding your hands for what you have done. (Great cheering.) 
With him obedience to law was the foundation of liberty. He 
acted upon that great principle; he recognized that only under 

( 12) 



law and by obedience to law could this nation continue to be 
great and its people to enjoy the blessings guaranteed to them 
by our constitution. And throughout his long life of service 
you never found Theodore Roosevelt advocating for one moment, 
or recognizing for one moment, disobedience to law. There was 
an orderly way to change a law if that law was not what it 
should be; there was an orderly, intelligent method of appeal 
to the people to the end that they might through their processes 
of government change that law ; and there was always stem 
rebuke from him to the man or set of men who sought to place 
themselves above the law or to take the law into their own 
hands. 

I recall an incident in Chicago when there was a strike of the 
teamsters, and they had engaged in terrorism, and unfortunately 
for the city of Chicago there was an executive in power who 
could not or was not willing to stem the tide of lawlessness. We 
were going through Chicago and the teamsters presented a peti- 
tion to the President, they having learned that he might take 
some action because of their threatened interference with the 
transmission of the mails from one station to another. They 
believed that because he was friendly to organized labor he 
would not be unfriendly to their appeal to let them do as they 
would. They presented a petition asking that the Government 
of the United States should not interefere in Chicago. His 
answer was instantaneous. "Men," he said, "there is absolutely 
nothing to arbitrate or even to consider as long as there is dis- 
order and violence, and if one of these wagons carrying the 
United States mail is interfered with the troops of the United 
States will shoot down the men who interfere with that trans- 
mission." (Applause.) They asked him if they could withdraw 
the petition. "No," he said, "you have given me your petition, 
and you have my answer. Now obey the law and stop violence." 
He did the same thing at a great meeting in Columbus, Ohio, 
where there was violence in a street car strike. 

Now it was that kind of action with which he backed up his 
sayings and the principles for which he lived and died. And 
so tonight, here as elsewhere through our country, we are show- 
ing not only our honor and love for his great character and 
memory but we are taking to our own hearts the principles for 
which he spent his life. Let us take the story of his life and 

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character back to our homes and hand it down to our children 
and to our children's children, to the end that our country, act- 
ing — not only speaking and saying, but acting — under the in- 
spiration of his life, shall go forward to its great destiny. 

Mr. COOLIDGE. It is an especial pleasure to present to 
you Charles Sumner Bird, who fought by Roosevelt's side. 

CHARLES SUMNER BIRD 

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: 

My mind tonight does not dwell so much upon Roosevelt as a 
statesman, as a soldier, as an author, but chiefly as a forceful 
and invincible crusader, a valiant two-fisted fighter, always eager 
to enter a contest when he believed he was right, and with a 
rare courage and determination which enabled him to do any- 
thing within the limits of human accomplishment. First of all, 
he loved his country. He was a great patriot and he despised 
the hyphenated Americans and their close relatives, the Bolshe- 
vists and radical socialists who place the flag of communism 
above the Stars and Stripes. Roosevelt was a man of high 
ideals, and also a great and able executive. There is a popular 
belief that he was impetuous and intolerant, which is far from 
the truth. Like all executives, he had often to act quickly, but 
he was never rash and never undeliberate. I never knew a man 
more open to suggestions and to advice. His greatest service, 
as I see it, was the spirit of patriotism and civic responsibility 
with which, by his words and by his deeds, he inspired thou- 
sands and thousands of young men to enter the public service 
and work for the common weal. 

But after all is said, and beyond all that can be said, Roose- 
velt's greatest characteristic, the one that bound men to him with 
bonds of steel, was his large, human and loyal heart. All men 
who knew him well were eager to fight and, if need be, to die. 
"Only those are fit to live who do not fear to die, and none are 
fit to die who have shrunk from the joy of living and the duty 
of life." Those words were said by him not long before he 
died. These were his principles, and he lived up to them. I love 
to think and to talk of Roosevelt. Every thought of him is to me 
inspiring and satisfying. From day to day I recall some virile 
word, some courageous and strenuous action of his. I cannot 

(14) 



see him in the body, but I love to dwell upon his spirit, just as 
I knew him in the past. "Please put out the light, James," were 
his last words. But his light, my friends, will never go out. 
It flames brighter and higher than ever, and tonight his noble 
spirit is with us close at hand, urging us onward, ever onward, 
fighting as he fought for equality of opportunity, for justice and 
for humanity. 

I, too, want to emphasize every word that Mr. Garfield said 
in reference to Governor Coolidge. It is our duty, the duty of 
every man here present to do his utmost from now till election 
day to see that Governor Coolidge carries this state by an enor- 
mous vote. Anything less than that will be a disgrace to Massa- 
chusetts ; anything less than that will be a disappointment to the 
Nation. (Applause.) 

We are facing today the greatest crisis that I believe this nation 
has faced for half a century. This struggle that is before us 
between employer and employee has, I fear, only just begun. 
Surely nobody can accuse me of being opposed to unionized labor 
or to any other kind of labor, but I fear that the real issue be- 
neath all the camouflage I see from day to day is the question 
whether a man shall have the right to work for a living as he 
sees fit; whether he is going to be obliged, in order to support 
his family, to join a labor union, or whether the non-union man 
who seeks to support his family shall have that right, as Theo- 
dore Roosevelt always thought he should have it. That, my 
friends, is the issue which is coming. It is below the surface 
today and Mr. Gompers and the American Federation of Labor 
have not brought it clearly into the light. But it is certainly 
close at hand. Some years ago I, as an employer of labor, was 
handed by the Federation a paper which, if I had signed it^ 
would have bound me to discharge every non-union man in my 
plant, and I replied, even amid the exigencies of a political cam- 
paign, that I would shut the doors of my factory before I would 
discharge men who had been working shoulder to shoulder with 
me during my entire life merely on the ground that those men 
refused to join the labor union. 

Just one word more. The time may come when there must 
be a People's Union for, mark me, the people are paying the bill 
of this enormous conflict that has just started — a so-called mid- 
dlemen's or middlewomen's union. All the talk of profiteering 

(15) 



is largely camouflage. The real truth is that the high cost of liv- 
ing is caused very largely by the relation of supply and demand, 
and until we learn to produce more or consume less living is 
going to be high, but labor is going up by leaps and bounds. But 
that is not the serious part of it. It is not so much a question 
of shorter hours, not so much a question of higher pay, but it is 
a question of less work, a question of less production. Labor 
is slackening on the job. I know it. I have seen it every day, 
more clearly in the last few years and especially during the war 
period. 

Before I close I must pay my heartfelt tribute — and I believe 
I voice the feelings of every man in this room — to the man who 
has stood resolutely, steadfastly, ably, defending America's honor 
and America's safety during the past trying years, and especially 
during the last two months, Henry Cabot Lodge. (Cheers.) 

Mr. COOLIDGE. Not the least striking thing about Theodore 
Roosevelt is the fact that even while he lived a literature had 
grown up around him hardly equalled by any other American, 
no matter who, and since his death that literature has continued 
to accumulate. Two men who have written discriminatingly 
and beautifully of him are sitting at this table tonight — Charles 
Washburn, who was his classmate and his intimate and who is a 
Republican life-long, and William Roscoe Thayer, who is an 
honorary member of this Club. He says he is here on false pre- 
tences because he never was a Republican. I am going to ask 
Mr. Thayer to speak to this audience, which is opposed to him 
politically. 

WILLIAM ROSCOE THAYER 

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: 

I have watched you as a presiding officer and I have known 
your reputation for many years. This is the first time you have 
been known to blunder. You blundered when you called on me. 
You should have asked Mr. Washburn, who could have said 
something to you far better than anything I can say. 

Theodore Roosevelt was many-sided — and not only was he 
many-sided, because that is an external thing, but he was deep 
in all sides which he exhibited — one could spend an evening talk- 
ing about any one aspect. Take his humor. Any one who knew 

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him well, even those who heard him only at a public gathering 
or saw him cursorily passing in a public meeting, probably got 
some angle of his humor. Then there was his great naturalness. 
Yesterday I met a man who, on the day Roosevelt reached Amer- 
ica in 1910 and had his great ovation in New York, was motor- 
ing in Long Island and encountered a great thunderstorm in 
Oyster Bay. He went into a Httle inn to wait until the storm 
should pass and there saw a policeman. The policeman had 
one of his gloves off and held it tight in the other hand. My 
friend asked what it meant and the policeman said, "Why, I 
was at the Battery when the procession was starting, and Theo- 
dore saw me and came out and shook hands with me. 'Why, 
Jim, is that you?' This is the glove he shook, and I'm taking it 
home to put in my library and all my descendants will cherish 
it." Many persons thought that shaking of hands with the hoi 
polloi, or whatever other term is used, was one way of getting 
the popular vote. It was not at all. It was his complete natural- 
ness, that showed itself so often in his humor. 

I am reminded of that story, which you probably all know, 
of the old lady from Florida who came up to the White House 
and was admitted at the hour American citizens or their wives 
are told they may call. The President received her very gra- 
ciously. "Well, my dear Madam, what can I do for you?" 
"Well, sir, I came all the way from Jacksonville to see a live 
president." Finding her perfectly sincere the President said, 
"Madam, that is very kind of you. We often travel all the way 
from here to Jacksonville to see a live alligator." (Laughter.) 
That put the lady at her ease. Theodore Roosevelt in fact did 
that to more human beings than any man or woman that ever 
lived, yet we so often forget them, for it became to us a matter 
of course, such as, I suppose, Niagara becomes to people who 
live on its banks. So people became used to Roosevelt's many 
ways, to his terrific energy, his humor and his little idiosyn- 
cracies and forgot what a great man was behind it all. 

I was wondering tonight as I listened to the other speakers 
why it was that we all felt so eager to renew acquaintance and 
intimacy with Roosevelt, who has not been dead a year. I do 
not mean merely affection, but admiration, because that is the 
chief reason for many of us. But I have heard in the past week 
perhaps twenty speeches about this commemoration. I have 

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committed some myself, and I think we all turn to Roosevelt in 
this time of a really great crisis, and I should go one step further 
than Mr. Bird and say it is the greatest crisis the country has 
been in, because if in 1861 the United States had split into two 
nations our civilization might have gone on. But we have come 
to a turning point where a large part, a considerable part of the 
community, deny the very fundamental principles on which all 
civilization must be founded. Think of 1,100 policemen in Bos- 
ton breaking their oaths and finding here among demagogues of 
any party approval of their action. If Mr. Long believes in 
policemen breaking their oath, what can he consider of the oath 
he takes, of the promise he makes? That seems to me to be 
fundamental. Our Governor put it perfectly straight. I think 
there is no more debating that than debating the multiplication 
table or the rule of three. But unfortunately one symptom of the 
time is that in these fundamental questions of lying and honesty 
it is asked, "Are you sure you are right?" Now one great thing 
about Roosevelt is that he never had any doubt about funda- 
mental questions. "Murder is not debatable," he said, and he 
would say that of a man who broke his oath, and that man would 
not speak twice to him. Roosevelt recognized that there were 
certain things which it is better not to debate, and one is honesty 
and keeping your pledged word. 

Now I believe that because of what he said, especially in the 
last five years, we get back to fundamental truths. We are 
breathing the air our fathers breathed when we read those won- 
derful manifestos of his that came out month after month dur- 
ing the war. There is no evasion, there is no paltering, there 
is no double sense ; it is all perfectly straight, moral, honest. He 
was constituted of those ideal qualities of true Americanism, and 
when we go back to it now we get the perfectly straight things to 
do. After all, another secret, I think, of his enormous power 
in the world was that he saw the doing of the thing that you 
have talked about — believed that the doing of it is the solution. 
We all talk courage, we all believe in courage. He zvas coura- 
geous. He did it. It was perfectly simple. And so in so many 
of his own political moves he did the simple thing, like stepping 
out and shaking hands with that policeman, and by doing the 
simple, natural things he deceived a great many politicians who 
are always looking after some secondary or tertiary reasons. 

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"He must have other motives ; he must have some other reason." 
That v^as one of his characteristics, more than any other. The 
strokes that he made were perfectly straight, natural strokes, 
like the instances which Mr. Garfield told you of in the story 
of the strikers in Chicago and Columbus. There was no arriere- 
pensee about that, no motive. It was the one thing to do, and he 
did it. He saw it was the one thing to do because he was a moral 
man. 

I never have been so impressed by the power of a few moral 
principles to guide a man's life as I have been in going over 
rather carefully his life, since he died. They were throbbing in 
him as his blood. When justice, when courage were needed, 
they came naturally to him, and yet after all is said there is so 
much more of him than anyone has said, especially if you knew 
him. I shall not attempt to describe to you what I feel he was 
— certainly the most fascinating man — and I think those who 
knew him even better than I will admit that we have never seen, 
and that this age has never seen, a man so thoroughly represen- 
tative of this age, this age in America, above all. But living in 
this age, which is so helter-skelter, — the American Republic with 
all its various elements — he had running through his life one 
ruling principle which gave him his great power. 

Mr. COOLIDGE. The memorial meeting which is being held 
in Symphony Hall has been borrowing speakers from us all the 
evening. Mr. Pepper is over there now talking. He will be back 
here shortly. But we are rich in talent. It is our good fortune 
to have Dr. David Jayne Hill, who was an ambassador under 
Roosevelt and an Assistant Secretary of State under Roose- 
velt, afterwards Ambassador to Germany, and who stands — I 
shall have to say it while he is here — very nearly at the head of 
the diplomatic authorities of the United States. I am going to 
ask him to speak. 

DR. DAVID JAYNE HILL 

Mr. Coolidge, Gentlemen of the Middlesex Club and Ladies: 

It has been a very great privilege to me to hear the Governor 
of Massachusetts tonight. It has been an added privilege to hear 
what Mr. Bird has said. He has brought before you an issue, 
gentlemen, which, as he says, is the beginning of a serious crisis 

(19) 



in the United States. It is possible that the end may be reached 
soon, and if our people are really aroused to the situation, it 
certainly will not last long. As a citizen of another state I can 
confirm what he said with regard to the expectation of this 
Nation. We are looking to Massaachusetts with one voice to 
declare its adherence to the principle of the American Consti- 
tution and the basis of all civilization. 

We are here tonight, gentlemen, to honor the memory of a 
great Republican and American chieftain who has fallen. It is 
impossible upon one occasion, within the limits of the time al- 
lowed to us, for any man who personally knew and worked 
with Theodore Roosevelt to open all his mind and all his heart 
and give all his impressions of that great public leader, that loyal 
and devoted friend. There are so many aspects of Roosevelt's 
life, and every one of them rich in suggestion. Writer, essayist, 
historian, practical politician, administrative officer, ranchman, 
soldier, President, he has filled so many roles that it is difficult 
in a few words even to touch upon the topic which he illumined 
and to express all that comes to us with regard to his great 
career. 

Having had the privilege of serving under him, during his 
entire presidential term of nearly eight years, in the foreign 
service it is very natural for me, gentlemen, to think of what he 
stood for in the relations of this country to the other countries of 
the world. I have been deeply impressed by the skill and the 
insight with which he performed the sometimes exceedingly deli- 
cate and difficult task of avoiding international collisions, and at 
the same time steadily advancing the prestige of the nation and 
the good understanding of all nations by his acts and by his 
words. I think it may be said, without exaggeration, of Roose- 
velt's administration that more than any other in the history 
of our country it advanced the respect, esteem and the confidence 
of the Great Powers in the United States, and at the same time 
encouraged the belief in the small states that if they acted honor- 
ably — and that was the conditio sine qua non — they would have 
a sincere and powerful friend who would stand by them in the 
hour of trial and danger. The time permitted for these passing 
observations I shall do my best to condense into a very brief 
period, for I see the speaker of the evening has arrived. 

The main facts of our part as a nation in the international af- 

(20) 



fairs of that great period of nearly eight years are too well 
known to permit of our dwelling upon them in detail. But per- 
haps it may not be out of place for me to speak of some of those 
personal qualities of Roosevelt which gave his foreign policies 
their value and his methods their success. Now beneath them 
all were the probity, frankness, and the love of righteousness 
that always characterized the man. But these alone, however 
real and honorable, could not have procured for him the influence 
he exerted upon foreign nations or the conspicuous success which 
he achieved. The corner stone of President Roosevelt's diplo- 
macy was his innate love of truth and the habit of mind which 
sought the truth, not in self-introspection and reflection but in 
the study of positive, objective facts. It is not generally known 
that before we went into the war with Spain Mr. Roosevelt ac- 
quainted himself, while Assistant Secretary of the Navy, with 
all the military and naval resources of that country, and he knew 
from personal and official correspondence — for all this I have 
good evidence — the exact number, the precise location and the 
actual resources of the insurgents in Cuba who were carrying on 
the revolution, and the means of giving them the most effective 
aid. When few persons in the United States knew anything about 
the Philippine Islands, Assistant Secretary Roosevelt knew just 
what Admiral Dewey could do there, and made preparations for 
the capture of Manila. Without question, at that time of our 
war with Spain, Mr. Roosevelt was the best-informed man in 
the United States regarding what would be necessary to win 
the war. 

An insatiable seeker after facts, always an omnivorous reader, 
he knew the geography, the political status and the national 
characteristics of all the principal nations of the world, not ex- 
cluding the little states of Central and South America. What 
he did not know he was anxious to acquire, and he surrounded 
himself with men of solid attainments upon whose information 
he could draw and upon whose judgment he could rely. And 
when he had chosen them, he honored them, never pushing them 
into the background or claiming as his own the result of their 
labors or the prerogatives pertaining to their office. He corre- 
sponded personally and incessantly with kings and emperors, 
but he concealed nothing from his responsible ministers, and 
never embarrassed them by his conduct or by his public an- 

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nouncements, or carried on processes of secret diplomacy behind 
their backs. No man was ever less disposed to adhere to any 
opinion when it could be shown to be unsound or erroneous, or 
quicker to surrender it when he found it was wrong. He had 
that pre-eminent quality of greatness that he was ready to for- 
sake any theory that conflicted with or ignored reality, and he 
had that other quality of nobility that he never forsook a friend. 

Next to this valuation of knowledge and reliance upon it, 
maybe you have thought of him as an impulsive man. That im- 
pression came partly from an early impediment in his speech, 
a difficulty of expressing his thought without a certain gush, fol- 
lowed by a certain constriction, and that is the thing, Mr. Thayer, 
you have pointed out in your biography. Theodore Roosevelt 
never said what he did not know, never proposed what he had 
not considered, and never pledged himself to what he did not 
mean to perform. 

Now, next to this valuation and reliance upon knowledge, on 
the knowledge of reality and not on the figments of his own 
mind, was his habit of directness. It never took long to find 
out what Theodore Roosevelt thought about any subject. The 
conspicuous category in his mind was the distinction between 
right and wrong. He was not a great lawyer, he was hardly a 
lawyer at all, but he valued the counsels of great lawyers and 
was loyally served by them. In international law he made no 
pretence to authority, which perhaps would be rather risky 
in its present state. (Laughter.) But he had strong convic- 
tions of international right, and he knew that whatever the law 
was, it was intended to be right, and in this respect he was ready 
to make the law even where it did not exist. Now this directness 
was irrepressible in Roosevelt. As Governor of New York he 
had not the slightest responsibility in the business of treaty mak- 
ing, yet he constantly came out with the declaration regarding the 
fortification of the Panama Canal, as when we were seeking 
exemption from the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty in order to com- 
plete it, at the time when Secretary Hay made the first treaty 
with Lord Pauncefote. How much he loved and honored Hay ! 
Hay was an old acquaintance but Roosevelt loved his country 
and its safety more, and at the risk of offending Hay — I know 
it as a matter of fact, he offended him — for he knew that unless 
we could say "No" to an enemy wanting to use the canal in 

(22) 



time of war there was no use in building the canal at all, and he 
knew that we could not effectively say "No" to an enemy in the 
time of war unless we were prepared to defend the canal. 

The third quality distinctive of Roosevelt's diplomacy was his 
promptness. He understood that the vital moment in an inter- 
national situation is before anything is done. After a step has 
been taken, after a shot has been fired, the situation is irre- 
trievably altered. His methods wei^ therefore ^ preventive. 
When disturbance threatened he did not wait for the blow to be 
struck, but at once declared his attitude, and it had something 
to do with whether the blow would be struck or not. When the 
German Emperor was about to send a fleet to Caracas to levy 
upon the custom-house for the payment of an alleged debt on 
the part of Venezuela, President Roosevelt was not willing to 
permit the Kaiser to be both sheriff and judge at the same time, 
and he proposed arbitration to ascertain the justice and the 
amount of the debt. Now had he waited for events the German 
fleet would have proceeded on its mission, and it is doubtful if a 
German occupation, had it occurred, would ever have ended 
without war. As it was, a timely warning, of which Holleben, 
the German Ambassador at that time, was inclined to take 
little notice until it was repeated, saved Venezuela from an act 
of aggression, saved the Kaiser from a public humiliation, and 
saved the United States from eventual war. 

To take this course required unwavering courage, and that 
is the fourth foundation stone upon which President Roose- 
velt's national policy reposed. He is always thought of, by all 
of us, I presume, as a fighter, and yet this man, so often regarded 
as dangerous, of whom it was predicted when he went into the 
White House that in six weeks he would have involved us in 
war, not only kept the country out of war during his adminis- 
tration of eight years, but skilfully engineered peace between 
Japan and Russia under very extreme and delicate conditions, 
and was found worthy of a Nobel peace prize — the prize, the 
proceeds of which a little before his death he distributed in a 
manner that does great credit to his wisdom and to his honor. 

And not only this, but the personal esteem for Mr. Roosevelt 
and the prestige of his country followed him into private life 
and made him the welcome guest of kings and emperors, who 
received him when he was only a simple citizen with almost 

(23) 



royal honor, and throughout the world won for him the larg- 
est measure of respect and admiration enjoyed by any of his con- 
temporaries. At first, in contemplating this result, we seem to 
be confronted by a paradox, but the key to it is very simple. Mr. 
Roosevelt knew that every human good possessed by men has 
been won by resisting some form of evil, and he knew that this 
battle must go on so long as evil anywhere prevails. On this 
broad fact of human experience Theodore Roosevelt took his 
firm stand, and he commanded peace because the whole world 
knew that he would not tolerate wrong — a principle that would 
mean nothing further if it did not signify that he would fight 
for the right. 

Roosevelt's test of everything was the moral standard. In 
one of his great utterances — and the words seem to me more 
applicable now — he said that the vital line of cleavage in human 
society is the line which divides the honest man who tries to do 
well by his neighbor from the dishonest man who does ill by his 
neighbor. "This government is not and shall never be a gov- 
ernment by a plutocracy, but this government is not and it 
shall never be a government by a mob." Here is a secret of 
the honor in which Theodore Roosevelt is held today. He 
never threatened any man or any nation with any wrong if 
that was an honest man or an honest nation. He was the spirit 
of justice and fair play. His real greatness lay in the firm and 
unalterable conviction that in some way righteousness will at 
last prevail, and to him in all reverence may be applied the 
words of the Holy Scripture : "They who turn many to right- 
eousness shall shine as the stars in the firmament forever and 
ever." 

Mr. COOLIDGE. The Middlesex Club is under great obli- 
gation to you, Dr. Hill, for what in my humble opinion is the 
strongest, most profound and most comprehensive statement of 
Theodore Roosevelt's influence upon world affairs that I have 
ever heard. 

I have had several calls saying, "We want John Weeks." So 
do I. But you are not going to get him. James T. Williams, Jr., 
editor of the Boston Transcript, incidentally a real patriot and a 
real American, who was one of that splendid band of young men 
who got their inspiration from Theodore Roosevelt, who was 
with him in Washington, who followed him to the end, looks 

(24) 



apprehensively this way — but he is not going to speak. George 
Pepper is (applause) and I see I don't need to tell you who he is. 
He has been at Symphony Hall. He came from Philadelphia 
just for this occasion, and I think it is about time that we gave 
him a chance. All I am going to say to you about him is that I 
have worked with him and by his side for months, and that he is 
a thoroughbred, if ever there was one. Better than that, he is an 
American away from the top of his head to the soles of his 
feet. I think you will agree with me after you have heard him 
talk. 

GEORGE WHARTON PEPPER 

Gentlemen of the Middlesex Club: 

Your President has certainly made the amende honorable. 
What I had to say in friendly criticism of him dies upon my 
lips. I was wondering what had happened in the course of our 
friendly and official relationship which could possibly have justi- 
fied the distribution of a handbill announcing this dinner, in 
which I was described as "a master of eloquence." As Mr. 
Dooley remarked, "What a damned mean thing to say about 
anybody!" And when the program was printed he was unkind 
enough to list me as "the speaker of the evening," placing me 
in painful contrast to what you have heard from those who have 
just spoken and to what you may justly imagine would have been 
said to you by men far more entitled to speak than I. But he 
has given me the pleasure of coming before you, and to me this 
And as we draw nearer to Theodore Roosevelt tonight we be- 
is a very great occasion, and I am going to try very hard to 
rise to it. 

It seems to me most inappropriate that one should attempt 
forensic eloquence when one is talking of the memory of a 
friend. Rather I should like to speak most informally with 
you, just as men do when they are sitting about a fireside to- 
gether, exchanging recollections of someone whom they all re- 
vered and whom many loved. Because when men approach a 
common center they soon find themselves touching shoulders, 
come more keenly conscious of our own brotherhood. Loyalty to 
him makes our fellowship stronger, and whether we are sons 
of Massachusetts or of Pennsylvania, we become better Ameri- 

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cans in virtue of the tribute we pay to the memory of him who 
was a better American than the best of us. 

Now I believe, Mr. President, that it was a distinguished citi- 
zen of this great Commonwealth who once deplored the tendency 
to ring the changes on Marathon and Thermopylae and go back 
to Greece and Rome for the exemplars of patriotic virtue. And 
of course it is true that our own recollections, our own national 
recollections, must be the enduring foundations of our national 
greatness, and it seems to me particularly inspiring and stimulat- 
ing to turn to the memory and example of a man who in our day 
rendered conspicuous service to the Republic and achieved great- 
ness under the very conditions amidst which I, and perhaps 
some of you, with difficulty attained even to mediocrity. 

It is with mixed feelings that I think of the meetings held 
today in different parts of the country at which the memory of 
Theodore Roosevelt is the theme. Many of those meetings will 
be attended by people who are well aware that Roosevelt's great- 
ness will live. There will be many posthumous disciples at those 
meetings, and in all the audiences there will be a sprinkling not 
only of those who disagreed with him while he lived, but even 
misunderstood, and sometimes hated him. But today somehow 
or other they are swept into the current of his friends, because 
they are dimly conscious that the great American public will 
suspect there is something wrong with the man who stands aloof. 
The speakers at a meeting like this will speak with the motive of 
loyalty and deep conviction. There will be some little men who 
will take the opportunity to claim intimate friendship with 
Roosevelt, and those get the kind of satisfaction which the small 
often find in the society of the big; and many will make the 
mistake of supposing that these meetings, and that club nights 
like this, are held in order that we may add full lustre to Roose- 
velt's crown. But, as I understand it, the purpose of Roosevelt 
Day is not that we may give anything to Roosevelt, but that we 
may turn to him for light and leading, that our own feet may 
be guided in the ways of peace. 

When I think of the conditions under which we live tonight 
I venture to assume that you are like me to this extent, that you 
are sorely in need of light and leading. Our domestic situation 
is a maze, our foreign relations are in a tangle, the sea is rough, 
the sky is stormy. I feel the need of a pilot, and I turn to 

(26) 



Theodore Roosevelt. Almost the first ray of light he gives me 
is in the form of a proposition that is almost a paradox, and 
that is, that in situations of perplexity like this, the humanity of a 
leader — that is, I mean, his humanness — is of more importance 
than his intellectual equipment. Of course, it would be a for- 
tunate thing if any one intellect were all-embracing enough to 
comprehend all the problems that vex us, to perceive their right 
solution, where to find the tortuous channel and lay down the 
courses and distances by which the ship of state might be safely 
steered. But no such thing is possible. In such world condi- 
tions as those which we face the requisite wisdom is not to be 
found under any one hat. Collective wisdom is the wisdom of 
which we stand in need, and we need sorely that atmosphere of 
confidence which makes even diverse minds happy to unite in 
constructive thinking about common problems, and leads many 
hands to join in the work of building upon the foundations the 
fathers laid. 

If I am a corporation president or a journeyman carpenter — 
I do not know which is the economic order of their importance 
— but if I am either, what I want is a sense that my leader has 
something in common with me and I with him. There are two 
types of great men. There is in the first place the man I wonder 
at because he is very different from me. I realize that if I be- 
come a hundred times bigger than I am he and I will still belong 
to different species and talk different languages. Then there 
is the other man whom I like because he is so like me, only 
bigger and better. When he speaks I know what he is talking 
about, and when he presents a plan I am predisposed to accept 
it because I know he does not deal in abstractions. His plans 
are always instinct with profound psychology. He understands 
the people he has to deal with. They are people of flesh and 
blood. And when I choose my leader I want a man who will be 
a good mixer in the highest and best sense, not merely a man 
who will put everybody at his ease, but a man whose facility in 
dealing with other men arises from the conviction which he and 
they share that both are alike of one blood. 

And, my friends, when I turn again to Roosevelt and seek 
another ray of light I feel as sure that if he were with us tonight 
he would say to us in no uncertain terms that under such con- 
ditions as those under which we live measures count less in 

(27) 



the world than men. You might set up all that I do not think 
you will — a well-conceived and wisely drawn international coven- 
ant, but if your executive council of nine is made up of old-style 
diplomats or new-style doctrinaires, your League will be beached 
upon its maiden voyage, and you may call conference after con- 
ference in the effort to adjust the eternal differences between 
capital and labor, and the most wisely conceived program will 
end in nothing if under their breaths those who come ostensibly 
to confer are anathematizing the people that call them together. 
Men count more than measures. 

Again Roosevelt gives me a flash of light in the form of that 
oft-quoted proposition of his that nine-tenths of wisdom con- 
sists of being wise in time. He was a great man in emergencies. 
But he did not conform to the type of those who are content 
with a brilliant dash at preparedness after having first been 
caught unprepared. (Laughter.) As Dr. Hill has explained 
to you — and no man can explain with greater authority — he saw 
further than the rest of his fellow men, and when he perceived 
a cloud on the horizon, even if it were as small as a man's hand, 
he took into exact account the possibility that it might contain 
the makings of a tornado. They called him a fire-eater. It was 
a misnomer. The fact is that, like all men truly brave who know 
about fighting, he picked no quarrels and never provoked a fight. 
But he was ready to give a terrific account of himself if any 
man was looking for trouble. His advocacy of universal train- 
ing was much misunderstood and misrepresented. Roosevelt did 
not conceive of the soldier as a quarrelsome specialist whose 
only occupation was bloodshed. But he did consider the citizen 
as a man equipped and ready at all points for public service, 
including the service of making the Republic safe. If he were 
here tonight to speak to us I know that under existing condi- 
tions what he would advocate is universal and compulsory train- 
ing for American citizenship under military conditions. 

I do not hesitate for myself to declare most unequivocally 
in favor of a system of discipline vmder camp conditions for a 
year — in the life of every young American a year passed under 
the discipline of camp conditions, with attention focussed upon 
compulsory education in the English language and literature, in 
American history and in the fundamentals of our political, eco- 
nomic and social systems, as well as upon training in the art of 

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war and in the military sciences. I'd like to see a year like 
that count as a year in every high school course, and count as a 
substitute for a year in every college course. I'd like to see our 
young men not only getting education but getting it in a struggle 
in which body will compete with mind. I would like to see them 
get it directly from Uncle Sam, with the reciprocal obligation 
to use it for the Nation which has conferred it. I would not for 
a moment disturb the well-ordered and wholesome system which 
regards education as primarily the concern of each of the states, 
but I would put education for at least a year under the direction 
of the whole nation. I would have an education in which atten- 
tion would be fixed not only upon the art of war, but also upon 
those things on which must rest the superstructure of American 
safety. I believe I speak Colonel Roosevelt's mind when I say 
he would advocate such a measure could he speak to us today. 

The hour is late. I might touch upon many of the points of 
this man's character. But I prefer to rest my emphasis upon his 
humanness, upon his capacity to understand his fellow men. Be- 
cause unless I am very much mistaken these are the qualities 
upon which we must insist when we choose our leaders in the 
stormy days ahead. I know little about the details of your cam- 
paign in this state. We who look on at a distance can see only 
two figures in your Commonwealth today — your Governor and 
your Senior Senator. But with respect to the presidential cam- 
paign ahead, if I rightly interpret it, while of course there will 
be a formal issue, the real issue will be something more funda- 
mental than any issue that can be formulated. It will be a 
struggle for mastery between two different types of mind. On 
the one side will be ranged those who are convinced that the 
existing structure of American government, that our existing 
social and economic system, must be the basis upon which the 
many and the much needed reforms shall be worked out. And 
over against them will be ranged those whose supreme trust is 
placed in "isms" and in heretofore untried international experi- 
ments. In short, my friends, the campaign ahead of us is a 
campaign between the evolutionists and the revolutionists, and 
Theodore Roosevelt was essentially an evolutionist. There will 
be ample room in the evolutionary ranks for the man of con- 
servative mind, but there will be no place in the day that is 
dawning for the reactionary and stand-patter. There will be 

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ample room for men of vision, but no place whatever for the 
dreamers of dreams. And when we come to select our leader 
to guide the Republic in the perilous days ahead, let us insist 
that, whoever he may be, he will be characterized by humanity 
and sympathetic insight into the minds and hearts of his fellow 
men, and that he shall be such a man that upon his shoulder 
Theodore Roosevelt might have laid his hand while he grasped 
him with his strong right and, looking delightedly into his eyes^ 
have exclaimed, "Thank God, you are the kind of man I like." 



The Roosevelt Night dinner of the Middlesex Club was the 
largest in the Club's history. Five hundred members were there. 
The speakers were Governor Calvin Coolidge, James R. Gar- 
field, Charles Sumner Bird, William Roscoe Thayer, David 
Jayne Hill, George Wharton Pepper. Other guests of the Club 
were John W. Weeks, Samuel L. Powers, Charles G. Washburn, 
Robert M. Washburn, George H. Ellis, James T. Williams, Jr., 
James B. Reynolds, Caspar G. Bacon, George von L. Meyer. 
Invitations had been sent to Lieutenant-Colonel Theodore Roose- 
velt and Kermit Roosevelt. Their replies follow : 

19 West 44th Street 
New York City 

Mr. L. A. Coolidge, 
Middlesex Club, 
Boston, Mass. 

My dear Mr. Coolidge: 

I am afraid I will not be able to accept the invitation 
of the Middlesex Club, much as I would like to do so. 
During October I am giving up my time in speaking in 
my own district. I am running for the assembly. I 
work steadily for the American Legion, speaking all 
through the west until the end of September. It so 
happens, furthermore, that should I be able to come 
to Massachusetts I have promised Hall, chairman of 
the republican state committee, that I will place the 
time I could give at his disposal. 

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It is a very real regret to me not to be with you, par- 
ticularly as I know the real feeling for father that 
there is among certain of your members. 

With warm personal regards, 

Very truly yours, 

(Signed) Theodore Roosevelt. 

Sagamore Hill 
Dear Mr. Coolidge, 

Thank you very much for your invitation to the din- 
ner which is to be held on my father's birthday by the 
Middlesex Club. I regret very much that I already 
have an engagement for that night which it is absolutely 
impossible for me to break. 

Assuring you of my very great appreciation of your 
letter, 

Sincerely yours, 

(Signed) Kermit Roosevelt. 

This letter has been received from "Bill" Sewall, the Maine 
woodsman and guide, Roosevelt's boyhood friend : 

HOOK POINT CAMPS 
Island Falls, Maine 
Mr. L. A. Coolidge, 
Boston, Mass. 

Dear Sir: 

I was unable to be with you at the Roosevelt Birthday 
party. I was very sorry that I could not have the 
pleasure of meeting such a distinguished company. I 
wish to thank you for your very kind invitation and 
hope you will pardon me for not doing so before. 

Sincerely yours, 

(Signed) W. W. Sewall. 



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